A DOUBLE FIRST Steve Loughton
I
n the busy month of September I had the opportunity to drive the Jannarelly Design-1 on the roads around my home town in Surrey and the Ferrari Roma on the Millbrook Proving Grounds in Bedfordshire. The Jannarelly is a 2 seater with a fixed windscreen and the option to go strictly open top (but with a ‘get you home’ cover in the event of rain) or, at extra cost, a hinged c/f hard top that you either have on the car or you leave at home. I drove it open and enjoyed a wind free drive and the ability to talk fairly normally with Alan Robb who had brought the car over.
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With the standard glass fibre body the total package weighs in at about 850 kgs and has a power output of 325bhp from its mid engined 3.5 litre V6 sourced from Nissan. To maintain the ‘60’s feeling of carefree motoring there is no traction control or airbags and the 6 speed manual is standard although an auto is available. The instruments are analogue, but I wouldn’t have minded if they were a little larger for road use. Track would be different. Make no mistake this is a gorgeous looking car in the best traditions of hard edged, purposeful sports cars designed to be nothing more than pleasurable driving machines.
With a few options the cost creeps up to the magic £100k area but with its decent luggage capacity, heater, a/c and very civilized interior it’s several leagues ahead of many other stripped-down lightweights. So to the drive itself. Despite the fact that this example is the UK demonstrator that has been pedalled quite firmly around various tracks by some properly quick drivers as well as on magazine road tests and group comparisons it was a gem to drive as everybody seems to agree. It runs smoothly at low speeds on crowded roads with loads of torque and a moderately loud exhaust. That all changes
